Steve Sarkisian could not have picked a worse time to climb on his soapbox. The Texas head coach delivered a passionate condemnation of LSU’s effort to bring back players who participated on NFL preseason rosters, and the hypocrisy couldn’t be more evident. LSU’s decision has created a massive controversy and mounting tension across college football, to the point where the SEC is threatening to expel the program. Everyone has chimed in on this matter, and Sarkisian just had to add his voice to the choir.

Sarkisian went on what can only be described as a hypocritical diatribe, stating:

“These players on all of our rosters have been working for nine months for this moment on Saturday, which will then lead into the next five to six months. The fact that somebody is going to take somebody off of an NFL roster and tell somebody who has been doing it for nine months to kick rocks, that doesn’t sit well with me. That morally is wrong.”

A noble sentiment on the surface. The problem is that Sarkisian recently re-added former Texas offensive lineman Cole Huston to the Longhorns’ roster after Huston participated in not one but two NFL rookie minicamps. The only difference between the Texas and LSU situations is that Huston did not sign a contract with either NFL team.

The separation between Texas and LSU is paper thin

Both players put on NFL uniforms and participated in offseason activities trying to make an NFL roster. Both also filed temporary restraining orders once they realized the class of 2022 was denied the opportunity to compete in the upcoming season. The separation between the two situations is so granular that anyone supporting Sarkisian’s stance can’t explain to you what the meaningful difference is.

That’s where this entire saga becomes plain dumb. The irony of Sarkisian’s statement perfectly sums up the grandstanding happening across college football right now. A lot of people are positioning themselves as morally righteous over this issue, but they can’t explain or articulate why it’s such a problem. Most of the responses boil down to a vague “you just can’t do that” without any substantive reasoning behind the objection.

Maryland’s Mike Locksley nails the real motivation

Maryland head coach Mike Locksley put this situation into perspective. He summed it all up perfectly recently when discussing the possibility of adding players from preseason rosters.

“I know a lot of guys are acting holier than thou, and they’re usually guys that don’t have room at the bottom of their [roster] to bring in guys,” said Locksley.

Locksley’s observation cuts through every layer of performative outrage surrounding this controversy. The coaches complaining the loudest are the ones who have nothing to gain from the ruling changing. They aren’t upset out of principle. They’re upset because programs like LSU and Texas stand to benefit from roster flexibility they don’t need.

The most glaring aspect of this entire situation is how quickly the college football world has devolved into finger-pointing without anyone establishing a clear, logical standard for what separates an acceptable return from an unacceptable one. If Huston’s two minicamps without a contract are fine, but an NFL preseason roster stint with a contract is a bridge too far, the sport needs to articulate that distinction clearly. Right now, nobody can.

Hopefully, the SEC and its member institutions can arrive at a resolution that applies a consistent standard rather than punishing one program while turning a blind eye to another doing something functionally identical. One thing is for sure: Sarkisian is the last person who should be lecturing anyone about the morality of this situation.